DETROIT — Hantz Farms has received criticism and it has earned praise.

People are both skeptical and optimistic about the private company's plan to purchase up to 190 acres of city-owned lots at $300 each for a total of near $600,000, where they intednd to plant hardwood trees.

The company's work on a 3-acre plot behind the Hantz Farms office at 17403 Mount Elliott in Detroit, a test cleanup and planting of 900 oaks, garnered praise from neighbors.

Hantz Farms President Mike Score says company representatives walked door to door in the lower-east side neighborhood near Indian Village where it plans to implement its large-scale planting and 90 percent of the people they talked to supported the effort.

Score said the trees could be sold for nursery stock or, in 50 or more years, harvested for lumber; but he said any economic gains will only offset maintenance and the $5 million the company plans to invest within the first three years.

But in an era of scorn for "1-percenters," not all are pleased to see a businessman gobbling up large chunks of Detroit's public lands.

One skeptic, a Royal Oak MoveOn.org member sent out an email two weeks ago
stating that Hantz Farms is in cahoots with Monsanto, a multinational
agricultural gene engineering company and pesticide producer, which Hantz Farms said is entirely untrue.

View full sizeMike Glinski | MLive DetroitPresident of Hantz Farms Mike Score standing in one of their lots of trees.

There is no question that the future value of property in Detroit is uncertain, and could improve, but how long can a city that is in economic turmoil wait?

Heirs to John Hantz, a 20-year resident of Detroit's Indian Village, the chief executive officer of the Southfield-based Hantz Group which manages about $3 billion in assets, stand to gain a considerable equity should Detroit again flourish.

But that is speculative. What can be gauged today is the current market value of property; and it's low.

With many residential homes in Detroit, even nice ones like this four-bedroom on Glenfield, selling for $10,000 or less, it hardly makes sense for anyone to build on the lots.

So what then?

So far, it's been a waiting game. The school district, Detroit City Hall and Wayne County all have inventories acquired lands and not enough money to maintain them.

Score said many of the city-owned lots have been in Detroit's possession since the 1970s.

And comes along Hantz Farms with a proposal that, on the surface, sounds ideal: They'll scoop up a large chuck of property that no one else is clamoring for, put them back on the property tax rolls, clean them up and plant aesthetically pleasing trees.

Score said it is his hope that Detroit City Council will vote on the proposed purchased and development plan by early fall.

What do you think? Is this a good deal for the residents of Detroit? What are the pros and cons if this deal goes through? What are your worries, if any, should the plan proceed? Join the conversation.